Advice for New Sonically Challenged

[Craig in Cali]

I got reactive tinnitus and hyperacousis 4 years ago after my crazy ex screamed in my ear.

I was never so low.

Two things help, nothing else does:
1) seeing this ear issue as a scar that makes us humans unique. Plenty of musicians have ear problems. It's a shit scar right down the middle of your face.
2) singing, even to the point of screaming, at the worst frequencies is therapeutic and has real benefit for me.

When my ears really act up after some event, and jump to a 7 or 8, I do my singing/yelling exercises for a few days 2x a day and I return to my baseline level of ~3.

 

[GregCA]

I got reactive tinnitus and hyperacousis 4 years ago after my crazy ex screamed in my ear.

I was never so low.

Two things help, nothing else does:
1) seeing this ear issue as a scar that makes us humans unique. Plenty of musicians have ear problems. It's a shit scar right down the middle of your face.
2) singing, even to the point of screaming, at the worst frequencies is therapeutic and has real benefit for me.

When my ears really act up after some event, and jump to a 7 or 8, I do my singing/yelling exercises for a few days 2x a day and I return to my baseline level of ~3.

Sorry about your condition, but I think you should reconsider #2: screaming is not good for your ears, and while you may seem to think it benefits you short term, you could be causing a whole lot of trouble long term.

I know how bad this sucks, but if I were you, I'd protect my ears from loud noise, even from my own loud voice.

Good luck!

 

[Craig in Cali]

Do you have any links to articles suggesting that one's own yelling or singing is damaging to ears?

There are articles on Auditory Corollary Discharge that describe how the brain differentiates between self-generated sound, and external sound.

Animals, including our close primate cousins, have been screaming for millennia. Babies scream and don't hurt their own ears. I've never heard of any hyperacusis/tinnitus being caused by one's own voice.

"As you scream for your favorite sports team, special brain cells kick in to protect your auditory system from the sound of your own voice, a new study suggests.

These cells dampen your auditory neurons' ability to detect incoming sounds. The moment you shut up, the inhibition signal stops and your hearing returns to normal, so you can then be deafened by the screams of the guy next to you.

Scientists call this signal a corollary discharge. In crickets, on which the study was done, it's sent from the motor neurons responsible for generating loud mating calls to sensory neurons involved in hearing. The signal is sent via middlemen called interneurons."

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11045763/...science/t/why-screaming-doesnt-make-you-deaf/

"Such self-produced intensive stimulation of auditory sensory apparatus can, in principle, lead to its desensitization and result in loss of sensitivity to stimuli arising from the environment."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763418303257?via=ihub